James Nichols, a registered sex offender in North Carolina, has protected rights to worship or attend church.

A judge ruled that a law limiting NC registered sex offenders' ability to worship or go to church is unconstitutional.

The Associated Press reports that Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour said two parts of a North Carolina general statute aimed at protecting children from child molesters are unconstitutionally vague and overly broad. In addition, the statute infringes on constitutionally protected rights -- specifically, the right to worship.

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle put a new law on the books when he signed a bill to toughen state drunk driving laws.

According to the Associated Press, the new law makes a fourth offense drunken driving a felony if it occurs within five years of the previous offense. A first offense will be a misdemeanor if someone younger than 16 is in the car. In addition, repeat offenders and first-timers with high blood alcohol contents must get ignition interlocks.

The Obama administration's plans to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in an Illinois state prison have been delayed.

The timeline for the transfer may take longer than expected.

President Barack Obama originally said Guantanamo would close next Jan. 22, but that timeline has been extended.

According to the Associated Press, it will take months for the federal government to buy an Illinois state prison and upgrade it to hold suspected terrorists. In addition, Congress also needs to change a law prohibiting detention in the U.S. of detainees who are not awaiting trial.

As President Barack Obama and his family prepared for their holiday trip to Hawaii, a woman accused of telling the Secret Service that she would "blow away" First Lady Michelle Obama was arrested.

According to the Associated Press, the woman arrested for threats to First Lady Michelle Obama was 35 year old Kristy Lee Roshia. She was arrested two miles from the Kailua home where the Obama family planned to stay during a Christmas visit later this week.

The parents who pulled off the balloon boy hoax, Richard and Mayumi Heene were sentenced to jail time and must pay legal restitution.

ABC News reports that Judge Stephen Schapanski sentenced Richard Heene to 90 days jail time and four years probation. He must serve 30 days in jail beginning January 11, 2010, and 60 days may be served at night, if he is working during the day.

Under new orders by general in charge of U.S. troops northern Iraq, pregnancy is now among the list of reasons a soldier under his command could face military court martial.

CNN reports, Maj. Gen. Anthony Cucolo outlined a new policy released by the Army that would apply to both US female soldiers in Iraq who become pregnant on the battlefield and the male soldiers in Iraq who impregnate them.

As reported by the LA Times, the council previously agreed on capping the number of dispensaries at 70 (effectively at 137, including those that properly registered with the city). It had agreed to place a 1000 foot buffer zone between marijuana dispensaries and any residential or other "sensitive" area (such as parks and schools).

Several Pennslyvania men pleaded not guilty to charges related to a fatal racially motivated beating, along with police department corruption.

According to Citizensvoice.com, a federal grand jury returned multiple indictments. The three indictments include federal racial hate crime, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, official misconduct and extortion charges.

Illinois is looking to cut cost and save money. But criminal prosecutors say the early release of prisoners may save money now but undermines the Illinois court system in the long run.

Now the governor has suspended an early release program that had drawn concern from prosecutors.

The state had allowed the early release of repeat drunk drivers, drug users and even people convicted of battery and weapons violations in order to save the state $5 million annually.

The Associated Press reports that it obtained and analyzed information showing at least 850 prisoners spending as little as 14 days total of a year's sentence behind bars since September. Corrections is granting them months of good-conduct time when they enter prison.

United States Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. is busy drafting security plans for the 9/11 trials.

He recently took a trip to New York to meet with federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials about the securing the courtrooms where, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed the accused mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks and other 9/11 detainees will be tried.

Before prosecutions can begin in the 9/11 trial next year, major details still need to be hammered out.

Those issues include not only the questions raised in our previous discussions about which detainees get civilian trials and the location of where those federal court trials might be held but also selecting lawyers to defend Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others accused in the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Although a police search of a Chicago home didn't turn up any laptops from the offices of lawyers representing former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, police made one arrest on a weapons charge.

Calvin Ware, 41, was charged with a weapons violation but it wasn't related to the burglaries.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, police believed Ware was a suspect who broke into the offices of Blagojevich attorney Sam Adam and his son, Samuel E. Adam, and took items that may contain information about Blagojevich's case. Those items include eight computers and a safe.

Predicative policing is the latest law enforcement tactic which combines cutting-edge crime analysis and other information to forecast where crime may pop up next.

This week Los Angeles is hosting the country's first symposium on Predictive Policing. It is organized by the Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA).

More than 3,500 registered New York sex offenders were kicked off of MySpace and Facebook and other social networking sites.

The purge was part of the first database sweep since New York's Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act "e-STOP" took effect last year. e-STOP is the is the first program of its kind.

After thirty years of spying for Cuba, a retired State Department official will now spend life in prison after he and his wife pleaded guilty to plotting to commit espionage and wire fraud.

Walter Kendall Myers, 72, and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, 71, were charged with conspiring to act as illegal agents and with passing classified information to the Cuban government, according to the United States Department of Justice. They also were charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud.

About FindLaw Blotter

FindLaw Blotter is a crime blog dedicated to covering crime news and notorious, newsworthy and weird happenings in the criminal justice system, with an emphasis on answering the legal questions that lurk in the background of each story. Have a comment or tip? Write to us.